Subject: National Team

For everyone's information the remainder of the MWC draw has now been drawn. Considering who we could have pulled, it's not too bad of a draw.

A - Scotland vs Malta
B - Norge vs Latvija

C - Moldova vs Paraguay
D - Bosna i Hercegovina vs Australia

E - Hellas vs Ireland
F - France vs Bulgaria

G - Czech republic vs Andorra
H - India vs Perú


I said at the start I'd be happy so long as we avoided France,Czech Republic and Norway. With this draw we've now avoided both Czech Republic and France completely unless we both make the final. We may not even have to take on Norway either if things fall our way.

Feel sorry for India, topping the group, only to have to run into Czech Republic in the 1/4 and then possibly having to play France in the semi's.

In saying that B&H aren't going to be easy and certainly not my ideal 2nd round match, but it could have been a lot worse. A win would give us a huge chance of making the semi finals which would be a good achievement. Semi finals is definitely the aim after seeing the draw open up on our side.

Ok we're taking on Bosna i Hercegovina today and they've proven to be quite difficult to break down. I'm not sure how we're going to fare against them but I have gone in with what I believe is our strongest chance. I can't guarantee we'll end up on the winning side but my hope is we will.

Enjoy the game and please comment afterwards if you have anything to discuss.

Yes :D. Into the 1/4's we go with a comprehensive 5-2 victory. Villafane absolutely outstanding yet again and will be hugely missed next week against Moldova. 5/7 is the 2nd game consecutively we've finished well, mind you when most of your shots come from 2m out dead in front with just the keeper to beat, you'd hope to put most of them away.

My only concern would be whether we'd end up with long balls punched through our defense as I played the defense deep with the midfielders high up the pitch to try and prevent our strikers running back towards the ball and therefore ahead of their defenders. Fortunately they only went in with a single striker and that gave us the upper hand.

We move on to next week :).

We take on Moldova this week in the 1/4 finals of the MWC. Moldova have had a solid MWC to date, coming through top of the group containing NZ and Peru and have yet to suffer defeat. They've run into us at a good time, where we have numerous players unavailable or in low form.

Most notably, we're without Villafane and Barnes is SI +1. On top of that we've still got key players in poor form, Libbesson, Stewart, Puca, Stephenson, Maras.

The loss of Villafane is a cruel blow though. Has been playing some outstanding matches for the NT recently and not having him available is going to hurt us quite a lot. Hopefully we're able to progress to the semi finals but it's not going to be easy as Moldova have some excellent players and have been on the way up for a number of seasons.

Enjoy the game for those that decide to watch it. Hopefully we come away with another win.

No doubt about it, the Tribe midfield is either injured or in poor form at the moment.

Well we progress to the semi finals :). I can safely say this now that I've never failed to make the semi finals in a MWC which is a useful record. I've never won it before either so maybe this is the season.

A comprehensive 5-1 victory, although when they equalised to make it 1-1 I was a little nervous as I left a bit of a gap for their striker to run through.

Fortunately, Tribe midfielders play well for the NT even when out of form and we hit back and ran away with the game. It's nice when you get what you expected from an opponent. Makes things a lot easier. We'd have been dusted if they went in with what they did last week.

Scotland next week, a tough ask but we've got a chance.

Semi finals of the MWC tonight and we're taking on Scotland. A few players starting to get back into form across the park is certainly going to assist us tonight. Still missing Villafane though which prevents us from using a key weapon. Hopefully we're able to take it to Scotland and progress to our third MWC final. By far our most difficult match of the tournament this week and a game we probably should be expecting to be beaten. I feel we've got a chance after they had a few players suspended/injured last week. Hope that gives us the edge we need.

Well we progress through to the MWC final (not too many would have picked us at the start and I think I may have mentioned somewhere earlier that I was happy for us to fly under the radar a bit.) The loss to India has turned out to be a bit of a masterstroke as we've managed to avoid the strongest teams in the comp for as long as possible.

Caught a bit offguard by Scotland changing their defensive structure but I'm happy they kept their general shape and structure which allowed our defenders to sit back and keep their offensive players under control, which only started to crack in the last part of the 2nd half.

Well we've made our 3rd MWC final and unfortunately we've yet to add a trophy. Part of my management seems to be that I can get us into these situations but always seem to falter at the final hurdle (as seen in WCQ campaigns, MWC finals). Hopefully, that's all in the past and we're able to come away with some form of title.

France clearly should be favourites going into the final, they have a far superior user base to us and a far superior list of players. Still, it's a good opportunity to take on world cup quality teams ahead of next season.
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Hooray! Nicely done.

Looking forward to the final.

France hey...

Might want to have a quiet word with Uber....see if he can work some of his French voodoo!!

MWC Final tonight. France are almost certainties to take this pretty easily and so I don't give us a lot of hope of coming away with much. I think reaching the final is an achievement in itself after bulldozing through Bosna i Hercegovina, Moldova and Scotland, none of which are what I'd label as easy sides to beat.

So far my instincts have been spot on and as a result we've come away with a result. What I'd give to be spot on once again is almost unmeasurable.

On the flip side, this creates an opportunity. We're expected by almost all to be no match for France and so a loss is an acceptable result. This therefore allows us to have a free attempt to try and create an upset. This is what we will attempt to do but in all likeliness the quality of France will shine through and we'll end up on the wrong end of the scoreline come 90min.

Enjoy the game and hopefully in just over an hours time we'll be sitting here with our first major title, that being Mini World Cup champions.

Enjoy the game and hopefully in just over an hours time we'll be sitting here with our first major title, that being Mini World Cup champions.

Did you know that New Zealand has a MWC title?:)

Yeah I did, thanks for reminding me about it. Just what I wanted to be remembered of.... ;).

Silver medal is the next best thing after gold:)

Just didn't quite get lucky enough and skill prevailed. They ended up beating us 3-0 but really it could have been better for us. 1st goal came off a deflection from Papaluca, 2nd goal came off a poorly placed defensive throw and the 3rd came from them tackling a defender at the end after a lobbed ball. Most of the rest were pretty much long range distance shots, other than a few rare chances.

I expected them to play a different tactic though, so wasn't expecting them to sit at home with a back 5 all game (as soon as they did we had no chance), was hoping they'd try and pop one up out of the defense and we'd then go on to exploit the space left behind. Whilst we hit gaps occasionally, it didn't happen often enough and so our chances were few and far between.

In the end though France are deserved winners, they're too strong a side not to be.

There won't be an NT friendly tonight, have not been able to arrange a friendly. We'll try again next week.